A variety of portable tents and similar collapsible structures have heretofore been known, includint those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,557 Zheng), U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,812 (Norman), U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,794 (Zheng) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,385 (Zheng). These portable tents and similar collapsible structures may be used by children or adults for temporary shelter, camping, as beach cabanas, play houses, etc.
The ease with which portable tents or other collapsible structures may be constructed and collapsed is a significant factor that determines their desirability for use in applications that require rapid or frequent construction and collapsing or easy portability, such as when these collapsible structures are used as beach cabanas, temporary play houses or while hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, etc.
Also, two or more portable tents or other collapsible structures are sometimes used in conjunction with one another and, in at least some applications, it may be desirable to connect two or more portable tents or other collapsible structures to one another to facilitate easy passage of humans, animals or objects from the interior of one structure to the interior of another structure.
Although the portable tents and similar collapsible structures have included a number of different designs, no one prior design is believed to be optimal and their remains a need in the art for the development of new and different portable tents and similar collapsible structures that are useable in new ways or are more easily collapsed/constructed or more easily portable than those of the prior art.